About jimb

jimb’s Comments

Speaking for myself personally, Google Fiber can't get to my neighborhood fast enough (and it actually should, Santa Clara, CA is 'on the list' supposedly). My alternatives are AT&T or Comcast (see FCC?! There really -is- "competition" in broadband... not!). A Comcast not-nearly 1GB connection would be three or four times the cost Google is charging... clearly Google must be dumping, it couldn't possibly a case of Comcast or AT&T overcharging. Look at that competition! The broadband internet industry in this country is shameful, and the way the big players have treated consumers is classically monopolistic/oligopolistic, they deserve everything the FCC will do to them and more.

Here's a TSA supervisor who isn't satisfied with having a job where he literally just has to go through the motions. This guy has a little authority complex, he's pretty full of himself and his sacred mission to protect the public through wasting their time and mild harrassment. He over-reacts, probably because he's only marginally qualified to do his job in the first place. Now, after he's harrassed and annoyed a law-abiding citizen, and been found wrong, the agencies involved, who hired this unqualified person, are getting sued. The agencies will settle, they can't risk a full loss in a court, and the cost of operating the agencies will be a little higher, with our taxes paying. The moron who cost all of us the settlement, like so many other 'officers of the law' who behave this way, may or may not be fired, but either way -he- won't be paying the settlement, we will. I don't begrudge Vanderklok his settlement, he should never have been harrassed and delayed as he was by this idiot abusing his authority. But I do think that Kieser should be paying the settlement, for as long as it takes, he should be paying back the government and we taxpayers for his stupidity.

Since Snowden, the NSA has been very open and cooperative. Of course, they haven't actually *changed* anything they were doing, nor do they plan to... they just figure that now everyone knows about it, even though they can't do anything about it anyway. Of course, if directly instructed to quit doing something, the NSA would be very responsive and cooperative, say "Of course, we'll stop right away!". And then they would just keep right on doing whatever they want to. What better secrecy is there than doing everything in plain sight, and just ignoring any contrary instructions...? It may or may not affect the efficacy or value of these invasive illegal programs, but the NSA doesn't care. They get the money to keep their bureaucracy growing and feeding whether the output of all their programs has any usefulness or not... and that's what is most important to any bureaucracy. The NSA is a force unto itself, and not subject to the control of the civilian authorities. Witness the ability of its head to outright lie to Congress, its ostensible civilian leadership, without penalty or censure. Since everything is secret, anything and nothing is being done, and whatever may or may not be being done is legal, whether it is or not. Kafka would appreciate it...

Because I live right here, I could just go over to Google HQ and throw the money in the front door... unfortunately, my choices are Comcast (need I say more) or even slower, maybe slightly better service AT&T. No monopoly there, eh? For $60 a month I get 'up to' 12Mbps downstream DSL. Google can't come to San Jose fast enough for me!

Sure wireless is competitive! There's more than one seller, more than one company, so by definition its competition. Of course, they don't compete on price, service, quality, coverage, geography, or innovation. But they do compete a lot, really. Not a day goes by that I don't get a mailing from AT&T or Verizon, asking me to switch to them or upgrade. All the services, coverage, and prices are more or less identical, crappy, and much too expensive, but hey, they're fighting for my business every day.

If I were a terrorist, I'd sure be interested in signing on with this department. What better cover than a badge - and 'legal' approval to carry a gun (maybe I should keep and AK in my trunk, in case I need more firepower...). So, this expanded "police" force is a perfect cover to terrorists looking to infiltrate and covertly get into position to cause major attacks. What kind of background checks are done, other than checking to make sure the $1200 check doesn't bounce? After all, if they let a lawyer sign up, they apparently will accept almost anyone. Maybe we should let the FBI or NSA know about these guys, they look a lot like a 'home-grown' terrorist organization to me.

They brought this on themselves. I'm for it, how about it, programmers? Get on it... and make sure the code is public, so it can be vetted for NSA backdoors. Make them work a little, go back to basic 'tradecraft' instead of electronic haystack building and sifting.

You're just upset because -you- don't make the laws. When you can afford a few legislators, and can tailor the laws to your own personal benefit, then this isn't a problem. So clearly, the problem isn't erosion of human rights directly, its erosion of -your- human rights because you aren't wealthy enough or gifted enough (meaning 'gifted' literally) to have laws tilt in your favor. Were you employed in the security-industrial complex, you'd clearly feel that you can never be too safe, and that a frightened population is an easily managed population. Enough of freedom, keep the public scared and you keep yourself in power.

"Warrantless seizures are only permitted if an officer has probable cause to believe that the property “holds contraband or evidence of a crime” and “the exigencies of the circumstances demand it or some other recognized exception to the warrant requirement is present.”

Well, there you go then. Clearly the police on the scene, having just been participants in a crime, abuse of authority at the least, are seizing the "evidence of [that] a crime" and are in the clear on this. After all, what's the point of being a cop, abusing your authority, and not being able to deny the public the ability to review your conduct. The badge in these cases becomes more like an invisibility cloak, because if there's no solid evidence some official abuse happened, its very near the same as if the event never happened. No proof, no case, and cops are very well aware of that fact.

The only thing left are words like "the" and "are". And, of course, "terrorists". Because along with everything that could possible give "the terrorists" any clue at all to what we know about what they are doing (hint, little enough that isn't already obvious) both parties needed to redact everything that might lead to the embarrasing conclusion that neither the CIA nor the White House has a clue what they are doing about "the terrorists" besides blowing up everything that sort of looks like "a terrorist" from a drone. Political expediency and preventing political embarassment are the primary factors at work guiding this redaction exercise. Perhaps Feinstein will find (with both hands...?) the political courage to 'leak' the unredacted version. A shame it doesn't slip out somehow, anyway.

"With limited exceptions (for example, in an emergency), our intelligence agencies must have a court order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to target any U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident for electronic surveillance. "

Tesla absolutely gets it. Besides, as Coca-Cola showed 100+ years ago, a patent is nothing compared to good trade secrets. Really new innovations, "new and novel" can often be kept secret, and that last forever, as long as the right people are the only ones in the know. The fictional 'Shipstone' battery is a good one... how they make it is secret, and if you tamper with it, it blows up, usually making a big mess. Result, one well-protected trade secret, and a (fictional) huge business success. The business is a result of the performance of the product.

Classify the ISP's as common carriers. Then allow municipalities to start 'public-owned' fiber internet access companies if they desire. Perhaps if there was -any- competition in broadband access prices would drop and speeds would increase. While I'm fantasizing about Google Fiber, its depressing to read about what the internet consumers in South Korea take for granted.

Seems like a grand jury is what is needed, an investigation, then with this evidence, the DA indicts the cops, for RICO, drug possession with intent to distribute, etc etc etc. Since this is my own home county, I'd sure like to see that happen...

I have a lot of faith in cops. I have a lot of faith in plain old human beings. My faith in cops, in that they are just like plain old human beings, includes faith that when bonuses, perks, and promotions are handed out to cops who excel in finding criminals and stopping them, while cops who don't find quite so many criminals (not that there would -ever- be a set number (aka 'quota') established, in writing, anywhere...) and stopping them... well, its just plain old human nature to want to excel, to want to get that promotion, to get that bonus, so, well, you do what you have to do. As long as you don't get caught, you get the promotion, the bonus (or in this job climate you merely keep your gainful employment a little longer...) as long as you don't get caught, you're golden. So, just like plain old people, cops cheat. Of course, since they're the ones -enforcing- "the rules", its most likely they don't get caught. Its much safer behind that thin blue line... just like gangstas know to not squeal, cops know it too. Nothing surprising about it, just plain old human nature, cops being plain old people.

I think the NSA knew about this flaw from its inception, as any creator would know. The NSA, of course, denies this. There is no proof, and probably no way to prove it. As would be the case with any other security backdoor found or "an unknown unknown". I believe the NSA, just as I believe them about everything else they have said in response to the Snowden leaked documents. They wouldn't lie to the American public, would they. So all these accusations, they're lies, all lies, except what Clapper and Alexander tell us.

But... if you do nothing wrong, then you have nothing to hide. So then it doesn't matter. And if you did something but didn't know it was wrong, or it was OK when you did it, then that's why they record everything and keep it for years. In case you turn out to be a terrorist after all. But its all needed to keep everyone safe.